


What Is Love?

by Silently_Invisibly



Category: Carole & Tuesday (Anime)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Romance, Awkward Romance, Awkward Sexual Situations, Awkward teens learning to love, Carole and Tuesday - Freeform, Carole and Tuesday one-shots, Eventual Sex, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Sad Romance, Smut, Tao and Angela are my babies, Tao is a awkward turtle in romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:41:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22580413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silently_Invisibly/pseuds/Silently_Invisibly
Summary: A series of one-shots, prompts, and requests (as well as concepts I think of) about Tao and Angela. I loved these two and binged the whole series just to see what became of them, and of course cried on more than one occasion. So these stories are meant to fix as well as to break us all over again.What is love? (Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more~~)...
Relationships: Angela Carpenter & Tao, Angela Carpenter/Tao
Comments: 9
Kudos: 60





	What Is Love?

Mars. A planet that had experienced two miracles, both of which had transformed the planet forever. First, by the colonization of humans, the second–– the second was the 7-minute miracle.

Much like Mars, Angela had also been transformed– by a man who all but lacked emotion, he was bland and uninterested in the world around him, and she hated him. At first. All that anyone would see was algorithms, A.I. engineered songs and his calculated coldness. Angela never would have counted on needing him, nor secretly hoping he'd ever need her...

Tao was like that though, he had never needed anyone. But he'd always been there for _her,_ he saved her twice and then he left.

He was her miracle– on both accounts, once when he saved her from the Black Knight, and again he came back for her one last time. He gave her the truth she so desperately craved and desired, to know where she came from and who she was.

And it turned out, none of it really mattered, they were the same. She _wasn't_ alone, he was there. He would always be there, even if she couldn't see him.

Angela saw him in her songs, she saw him with every note she sang, she saw him on in the shadows that followed her steps. She realized he was very much just like her shadow, always following her and keeping time with every step she made and guiding them just out of sight and unnoticed by everyone but her. That was what was so special, she supposed, that only she was on his radar.

It made her feel special, maybe... even...

Well, she knew it was nothing at the time, but when he came back– she knew that he at least saw her as a friend, possibly his only one. "Take me with you, where ever you're going, let me go too!" He didn't need anyone, and she knew he didn't need her, he was efficient and independent like that, but she wasn't him–she still needed _someone_.

That's what she thought when she saw him in her hospital room that night, and though he didn't take her with him––he had still saved her and it had meant the world to her.

"No," it was so flat the way he said that just like everything else ever said, but to her, it sounded... sad. "I will be in hiding everywhere I go, constantly moving, that is no life for you." She didn't care, she wanted to be where he was, she would go to his world, she would be a shadow then too if it meant she could be with him. 

_"Please"_

Tao sighed deeply, regretfully, as if he could, he _would._ "Angela, _no."_ It sounded so much more desperate this time, _no_ , it killed her.

Then he told her everything, and it hurt all over again, she was born from nothing, she had _nothing!_

_"_ But you are not alone. I will always be here, I will never be far, Angela."

Tao came to her bed slowly, quietly, and as if a silent dark pillar he just stood there looking down at her like the protector she had come to see him as; she didn't want him to go, she never did. This whole time she realized she'd been trying to get him to see her, and now that he did, he'd be gone.

They had no more words and she knew he wouldn't change his mind, there was nothing left for her to convince him otherwise. So their eyes locked for a space of moments and while her eyes began to water–his softened–something she had never seen before.

"I'll never see you again will I?"

"It is unlikely, no." 

And that was when her tears released in ugly rivers, "You say you'll always be here, but all you're asking of me is to grasp at something that isn't there! Just hold on to a shadow that I can't see..." Angela gasped out, tears that were neverending "how!?" She slammed her fist down on her hospital bed, "how can you do this to me? Y-yo... just as I saw you as my friend, just as you made me need you––you leave me!" She spat up at him. She was angry, and she wanted to hate him, but she couldn't, it was just too hard.

"Angela, you don't need me. You are strong enough now, you just haven't seen it yet" The somber gaze didn't leave Tao's eyes, and Angela wondered if he might have suffered from that truth just as much as she did hearing it. "But you will." 

"That's a lie," She sobbed, "you're such a liar!" Her eyes squeezed tight as she slumped over, her nails cut into her palms which were gripped into fists so strongly, her knuckles were white. "If that were true I wouldn't be here in the first place, and... and I wouldn't have killed Mother..."

That was the truth. All the doctors–– all the physicians, they said her body had healed and she was healthy, but her mind still suffered. It suffered from guilt and loathing.

She killed her mother, she killed her with rejection and a broken heart.

"I don't deserve to be here, I don't deserve to be in the light–– I want to be a shadow too, Tao. Besides, that's all I am anymore now."

Tao stood unmoving and letting her venting wash over him as he simply listened and blinked twice. "You know none of that is true." He moved so smoothly like he was the black silk that infiltrated the hospital room, where the moon shined through. His fingers lifted her chin to him, and she couldn't help but wonder where this tenderness came from, he was never like this before– what had changed?

She didn't agree with him, not at all... but before she could say a word he bent over her, it felt so slow and fast all at once, and she strangely took note how much taller he was than her, especially as she sat in a bed and he seemly towered over her. She watched as he placed the softest kiss upon her forehead and lingered.

"It's time." He said, his voice was just like the deafening silence she'd submitted herself to since she awoke.

She didn't like it. It was too sad; too final...

"Promise me you'll come for me, one day."

"I can't."

" _Promise me!"_ She sounded too desperate, but she no longer cared. She stopped caring what others thought of her a long time ago, "promise me, Tao."

It was just noise, just static noise coming back to her, with no response as they stared into each other's brokenness. She'd never see him again, she saw it in his eyes, covered by his tinted glasses. Angela couldn't bear it, it was too much, she had lost too much and that was what spurred the irrational action that even years later she didn't think she could ever come to regret. The defeated singer shot her hand out towards the front of his jacket, taking the lapels and propelling him forward and into her kiss. It wasn't good, it wasn't romantic like she thought it would be, it was their last goodbye and so it was bittersweet knowing that it was the end of their beginning. Just as Angela recognized what she felt for the emotionless man was love, it would be gone when he was.

His eyes told her everything, they seemed to be doing that a lot that night–– his betrayers; they told her he had no idea what to do, they said he'd never had this kind of interaction before and amusingly, Angela wondered if he was cataloging the experience. He didn't move against her, nor did he deepen the kiss, the just... _existed._ She knew she shouldn't have but it would be the last moment she'd ever see him again and she did grow fond of him during their time together. Through all of his infuriating habits, high demands of her, and constant requirements, she knew they were all things she would miss.

Like peeling the tape off of the skin, their lips parted, Angela watched him, trying to gauge what he thought and all she could see was confusion no–– confliction? A few seconds passed as his eyes averted and trained them to the tile floor, "Ta-"

"I can't say when; but...I promise." It was hesitant like Tao wasn't sure it was a promise he would actually be able to keep, but he wanted to. 

"I believe you. I'll wait, no matter how long, I'll wait..."

Tao couldn't find anything else to say, but he felt that he should; there should be more for him to say but he didn't know what. "Thank you."

For what? He didn't know. For the first time in his life, he was unsure about things, only when it came to _her_ , everything else– music, A.I., research... those were things he knew how to handle and he knew how to manipulate to get what he wanted: with Angela, he no longer knew what he wanted or what it was he could possibly offer her. He'd already given her the world and her career just as he had promised, but now, all that he could offer was his silent guardianship, only that he would always keep her safe even if she'd never know it.

"Good-bye, Angela."

"...Good-bye Tao..." 

He left her, the door closed with a soft click and she heard fainted voices before her assistant entered. They'd meet again, even if he didn't know it himself she knew they'd have their day. The Mars government had wrongfully turned against him and he was forced into exile because of it; it made her furious, but they'd see each other one day. She'd make sure of it.

"Katie, what are the possibilities of me getting an audience with the President of Mars?"

Angela would do her part too. She wasn't going to be the weak princess, singing and gaining the world over while the person she cared about the most received only its hate and resentment. She was going to protect him too.


End file.
